I am an old woman named after my mother
My old man is another child that's grown old
If dreams were lightning, thunder were desire
This old house would have burnt down a long time ago

Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go

When I was a young girl well, I had me a cowboy
He weren't much to look at, just free rambling man
But that was a long time and no matter how I try
The years just flow by like a broken down dam

Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go

There's flies in the kitchen I can hear 'em there buzzing
And I ain't done nothing since I woke up today
How the hell can a person go to work in the morning
And come home in the evening and have nothing to say

Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go

Comfort, peace, love & strength to all our families who are grieving but cannot be with their deceased loved ones during #COVID19nz. We know this is painful. As we say in Samoan ‘Manuia le malaga’ – blessings to your loved one for their journey. https://t.co/Sc4DtpJE3A

Naomi Replansky, a 101-year-old poet and labor activist, and her wife Eva Kollisch, a 95-year-old former professor at Sarah Lawrence, lived through the worst of the 20th century. They have some advice for you.https://t.co/qMXkRL1Fna

As more than 25 million people are placed on a two-week lockdown in parts of Nigeria in a bid to curtail the spread of coronavirus, poor people in congested neighbourhoods are worried about how they will cope, writes the BBC's Nduka Orjinmo from the commercial capital Lagos.

"From where do we get the extra water to wash the hands you are talking about," asked Debby Ogunsola, 36, as she led me down a dark corridor towards her room in the Alapere area of Lagos state [....]

The mayor of Holyoke in Massachusetts confronted the superintendent of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home after hearing rumors that infections were spreading.

By Ellen Barry @ NYTimes.com, March 31

NEWTON, Mass. — The mayor of Holyoke, Mass., got an unsigned letter over the weekend that deeply disturbed him.

“Are you aware of the horrific circumstances at the Soldiers’ Home?” the letter read, and went on to describe serious breaches, like a resident suspected of having the coronavirus, awaiting the results of a test, being sent back to a dementia ward with 20 other veterans.

“Where is the state in addressing what is truly happening in this building?” the letter concluded.

The mayor, Alex Morse, reached out to Bennett Walsh, the superintendent of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, a 247-bed, state-managed nursing home for veterans, to figure out what was going on.

But by then, Mr. Morse said, the damage was far more than he had imagined: In a matter of five days, eight veterans had died, apparently without being reported to either state or local officials. Others were sick with the coronavirus; staff members were too.

Mr. Walsh’s explanations left the mayor “incredibly disappointed,” and so did a conversation with Mr. Walsh’s superior, Francisco Urena, Massachusetts’ Secretary of Veterans’ Services. Frustrated and “with a sense of disappointment at the lack of urgency,” Mr. Morse contacted Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito.

By Monday, state officials had announced a series of major moves.

Mr. Walsh was placed on administrative leave. A new command structure was put in place. The National Guard was brought in to speed up testing of staff and patients [....]

Gees when he talks like that I can't even think that much about what he is saying because it is like being tortured by your Joey Buttafucco-type uncle trying to break in a serious conversation with the college-educated group at a family wedding. Here he's doing the "on the one hand, on the other hand" thing that's part of that whole shtick. Drives me nuts , you were having an interesting convo and he breaks in and you gotta be polite instead of saying: puhleez go away. It reminds me of my greatest gen. dad saying in like 2000: you know, they say this Madonna girl is really popular because he just read about her in Time Magazine for the first time and wants to display his new knowledge.

"On the one hand I can see sending all the Jews to Treblinka, on the other hand I can see leaving them where they are - I'd rather see them in Poland, but I left the guys with the authority to make that decision. There are trains ready if they choose." - lost conversation with Adolf Eichmann, The Banality of Executive Decision Making

“I’m always thinking how worse it was when we were under the German occupation, where every minute, our lives were at risk; literally, being in the ghetto and being in hiding. So if I was able to live through that, what the heck is coronavirus?” https://t.co/ADYOI7r6E2

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In the News

Two Buffalo police officers were charged on Saturday with felony assault after a video showed officers shoving a 75-year-old man who was protesting outside City Hall on Thursday night, officials said. ...Under New York law, a person who attacks someone 65 or older and is more than 10 years younger than the victim can be charged with felony assault, Mr. Flynn said. If convicted, the officers face up to seven years in prison.

Photojournalist Michael Santiago was part of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette team that in 2019 won the paper a Pulitzer Prize, journalism’s highest accolade, for its breaking news coverage of the Tree of Life synagogue massacre. The Pulitzer judges praised the staff’s reporting as “immersive, compassionate coverage … that captured the anguish and resilience of a community thrust into grief.”

The Ministry of Defence is refusing to reveal the nature or location of the operation involving RAF Reapers, which can be armed with Hellfire missiles, leading to calls for greater parliamentary oversight of Britain’s drone programme.

A federal judge in Denver JUST enjoined the cops from using a number of measures of force against protestors, calling certain actions of officers in Denver and across the country "disgusting." pic.twitter.com/2gMLULDX1E

Powerful @GregJaffe story on a family of four left with nothing after the pandemic hit, forced to live in their car in a parking lot on the outskirts of Disney World — a testament to the economy’s fragility and cruelty https://t.co/4eOZ9Af83Z

New York City is scrambling to hire the roughly 2,500 contact tracers that it needs, at minimum, to reopen safely. The hiring process has been marked by internal strife, bureaucratic delays, and union fights. https://t.co/pxRmjxZttJ via @michael_hendrix